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Power in The Constitution

Power in The Constitution. What We Will Cover:. The Importance of Being Educated on The Constitution What is Government? The Founders’ View on Power The Actual Words of The Constitution in Regards to the Proper Use and Restraint of Power Modern Day Abuses of Power

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Power in The Constitution

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  1. Power in The Constitution

  2. What We Will Cover: • The Importance of Being Educated on The Constitution • What is Government? • The Founders’ View on Power • The Actual Words of The Constitution in Regards to the Proper Use and Restraint of Power • Modern Day Abuses of Power • Brief Discussion About What We Can Do About It

  3. A Proper DiagnosisWhat is the root of the problem? Symptoms of the problem!

  4. “The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.” James Garfield

  5. “… every citizen is taught … the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution. … it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is sort of a phenomenon.” Alexis De Tocqueville

  6. “Religion in America ... must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country . . . they hold [religion] to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.” Alexis De Tocqueville

  7. “On every question of construction, [let us] carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” Thomas Jefferson

  8. “The Constitution[’s] . . . meaning [can] be found in the explanations of those who advocated [it], . . . These explanations are preserved in the publications of the time.” Thomas Jefferson

  9. The Declaration of Independence • Self-evident truths • Mankind are Created Equal • God-given, Unalienable Rights • The Purpose of Government

  10. What is Government? “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.” Frederic Bastiat “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. Government is force; like fire it is a dangerous servant - and a fearful master.” George Washington “The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” James Madison “

  11. Principles of the U.N. Charter • Self-evident truths • Mankind are Created Equal • God-given, Unalienable Rights • The Purpose of Government

  12. Principles of the U.N. Charter • Self-evident truths • Mankind are Created Equal • God-given, Unalienable Rights • The Purpose of Government

  13. Principles of the U.N. Charter Man-made, Conditional Rights Unlimited Government “Rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”Article 29 clause 3 - UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  14. “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson

  15. “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” John Adams

  16. “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny” Thomas Jefferson

  17. 4 Principles Regarding Power • Principle #1 - Delegated Powers • “The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.” George Washington • “… deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” • Declaration of Independence

  18. 4 Principles Regarding Power Principle #2 - Enumeration of Powers “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined.” James Madison, Federalist #45 “To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.” Thomas Jefferson

  19. 4 Principles Regarding Power Principle #3 – Separation of Powers “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many . . . may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. . . . the preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” James Madison, Federalist #47

  20. 4 Principles Regarding Power Principle #4 – Division of Powers “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negociation, and foreign commerce . . . The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” James Madison, Federalist #45

  21. “Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton

  22. Article Section Clause

  23. Article I (Legislative Branch) Section 8 (Powers Granted to Congress) Clause 11 (To declare war)

  24. Excuses for Unlimited Power 1. Supremacy Clause (Article VI) 2. General Welfare Clause (Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 1) 3. Necessary and Proper clause (Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 18) aka “Elastic Clause” or “Implied Powers Clause” 4. Interstate Commerce Clause(Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 3) 5. Treaty Law (Article VI)

  25. Excuse #1 for Unlimited Power Supremacy Clause, Article VI “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be … [passed by Congress?]…shall be the supreme Law of the Land”

  26. Excuse #1 for Unlimited Power Supremacy Clause, Article VI “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme Law of the Land”

  27. “All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.” - Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

  28. Excuse #2 for Unlimited Power • General Welfare Clause, Article I, Sec. 8, clause 1 • “The Congress shall have Power … to pay the debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare …”

  29. “Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars.” James Madison

  30. Article I, Section 8 – The Enumerated Powers 1. The Congress shall have Power … to pay the debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare … • General Welfare Powers • 2-Borrow money • 3-Regulate Commerce • 4-Establish rules of Naturalization and laws on Bankruptcies • 5-Coin money • 6-Punish counterfeiting • 7-Establish Post Offices and Post Roads • 8-Promote Science and useful Arts by protecting exclusive right • 9-Constitute Tribunals inferior to Supreme Court • 17-Control land for limited purposes • Common Defense Powers • 10-Define and punish Piracies and Felonies • 11-Declare war • 12-Raise and support Armies • 13-Provide and maintain a Navy • 14-Make rules for land and naval forces • 15-Call forth the Militia to execute laws, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions • 16-Organize, arm and discipline the Militia

  31. “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” Thomas Jefferson

  32. “The government of the United States can do anything not specifically prohibited by the Constitution.” Attorney General Francis Biddle1941-1945

  33. The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

  34. “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one” James Madison

  35. Excuse #3 for Unlimited Power • Necessary and Proper Clause, Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 “The Congress shall have Power to … make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper …”

  36. Excuse #3 for Unlimited Power • Necessary and Proper Clause, Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 “The Congress shall have Power to … make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers …”

  37. Article I, Section 8 – The Enumerated Powers 1. The Congress shall have Power … to pay the debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare … • General Welfare Powers • 2-Borrow money • 3-Regulate Commerce • 4-Establish rules of Naturalization and laws on Bankruptcies • 5-Coin money • 6-Punish counterfeiting • 7-Establish Post Offices and Post Roads • 8-Promote Science and useful Arts by protecting exclusive right • 9-Constitute Tribunals inferior to Supreme Court • 17-Control land for limited purposes • Common Defense Powers • 10-Define and punish Piracies and Felonies • 11-Declare war • 12-Raise and support Armies • 13-Provide and maintain a Navy • 14-Make rules for land and naval forces • 15-Call forth the Militia to execute laws, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions • 16-Organize, arm and discipline the Militia 18 - make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers

  38. Excuse #4 for Unlimited Power • Interstate Commerce Clause, Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 3 “The Congress shall have Power to … regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”

  39. “it (regulation of commerce) must carry the same meaning throughout the sentence, and remain a unit, unless there be some plain intelligible cause which alters it.” Chief Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

  40. “A power, then, to impose such duties and imposts in regard to foreign nations and to prevent any on the trade between the States was the only power granted.” James Monroe, 1822

  41. Excuse #5 for Unlimited Power Treaty Law, Article VI “This Constitution, … and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, _______________________ shall be the supreme Law of the Land”

  42. Excuses for Unlimited Power Treaty Law, Article VI “This Constitution, … and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land”

  43. Reid vs. Covert (1957) “It would be manifestly contrary to the objectives of those who created the Constitution, as well as those who were responsible for the Bill of Rights - let alone alien to our entire constitutional history and tradition - to construe Article VI as permitting the United States to exercise power under an international agreement without observing constitutional prohibitions.”

  44. “I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson

  45. “Knowledge is power.” Sir Francis Bacon

  46. Where is the Constitutional Power …

  47. Where is the Constitutional Power … • Foreign Aid?

  48. Where is the Constitutional Power … • Foreign Aid? • Housing?

  49. Where is the Constitutional Power … • Foreign Aid? • Housing? • Education?

  50. Where is the Constitutional Power … • Foreign Aid? • Housing? • Education? • Transportation?

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